A Riverside charter school has fixed weaknesses in its education plan and can operate another five years.

Riverside Unified School District board members earlier this week approved a renewal request from REACH Leadership STEAM Academy. Last month, trustees gave the school 30 days to explain how it would address shortcomings in special education, academic performance and other areas.

The school, which opened in 2012, runs on two church properties. Officials plan to merge them in mid-May at Grace United Methodist Church on Linden Street near UC Riverside.

“I’m pleased with these changes,” Board President Brent Lee said at the Monday, April 10, meeting. “There’s plenty of space for charters like REACH in our district. I look forward to them being here for the next five years at least and well into the future.”

REACH, which stands for Reaching Excellence in Academics through Community and Home school partnerships, focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Dina Harris, an attorney with Best Best & Krieger, told the board the school has a plan to improve special education services. REACH been accepted into two Special Education Local Plan Areas, which are coalitions of districts and agencies formed to ensure students with disabilities receive appropriate services.

In addition, the kindergarten- through sixth-grade school has agreed with the district’s recommendation not to add seventh and eighth grades.

Harris said REACH will comply with Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, by providing more details in its agendas and minutes. The school will reserve a spot for a parent representative on its board of directors, she said.

The district will continue monitoring REACH’s performance and can revoke the school’s charter if it doesn’t follow through with the changes, Harris said.

Virgie Rentie, the school’s founder and executive director, said REACH has always followed the Brown Act and has two vacant board seats for parents that will be filled by July 1.

“The district is doing its job with oversight,” Rentie said Wednesday, April 12. “We felt really confident we were able to address the questions the district had.”

The school’s scores on the state’s Smarter Balanced tests were lower last year than in 2015. REACH is hiring new teachers and improving instruction to ensure all students succeed, Rentie said.

Stephen Wall has covered regional education issues and general assignment since 2013. An Orange County native, he lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the mid-1990s and is fluent in Spanish. He worked for The Sun from 1999 to 2010, writing about city government, schools, education, immigration and other topics. He joined The Press-Enterprise as a freelancer in 2013 and became a staff writer two years later. His hobbies include running and Angels baseball.